What will the party aim to do?

Since this whole situation has become completely intolerable our determination after winning a seat in the Upper House in the South Australia parliament will be to:

Ensure that every new driver completes at 100 hours of log book driving including 20 hours with a licenced driving instructor, additionally completes a level 1 and level 2 defensive driving course, holds current senior first aid certificate, has a compliant first aid kit in their vehicle as well as a compliant fire extinguisher.

All drivers to undertake a two hour driver safety and competency check with a licenced instructor every 3 years.

Put our Police Officers back to doing Police work and not having to prove their diligence by having daily expectations of revenue collections resulting from targeting decent members of the community who commit trite and petty offences. Police cannot be everywhere at once; if they are working on revenue collecting speed camera and laser duties they are not able to take action or take a proactive stance on serious crime.

Ensure our Police have a much higher and proactive profile in areas where serious crime and criminals are to prevent crime by constant monitoring of dangerous offenders.

We will ensure our Police have the full resources they need to seriously tackle real crime on a ‘whole of Department’ basis … crime that is currently causing many South Australians great concern.

We will strongly encourage Police to be able to use their discretion and issue cautions where speed has not caused any evidence of direct danger

We will fight for the reinstatement of Police lectures for errant but not dangerous road traffic offenders

Remove the insidious ‘hoon’ laws and stop targeting and victimising our young people and seizing their cars – this is actually illegal under the Australian Constitution anyway.

We will demand that all current speed measurement devices are immediately scrapped. They are illegal as they are NOT pattern approved under the Federal National Measurement Act. These are being used in situations where there do not work and create criminals from innocent law abiding motorists. Reverse all fines where pattern approval cannot be proved.

Speed limits that are obviously there to collect revenue are revised back upwards to 60km/hr, 80km/hr and 110km/hour and more on freeways that are appropriate for a higher speed.

Reduce to a maximum two for the number of speed changes on any 10 kilometre stretch of open road except where there are road works. Speed restriction signs must be clearly marked so that motorists are watching out for potential hazards rather than constantly watching their speedometers.

Many penalties to be in the form of additional defensive driver training rather than huge fines and loss of licence. If a person is driving inappropriately then it is better to encourage the person to drive better – not potentially take away their livelihood.

Increased the level of training delivered by qualified instructors to include defensive driving for people learning to drive similar to the one implemented in Germany that led to a 38% drop in road deaths and injuries.

Increased training of school children from reception to ensure they cross roads safely including talks by Police Officers and using crossing assistants who can both direct children back to crossings and stop cars where necessary. In this way children are better prepared to avoid accidents where at times it is not possible for the driver to see them. (e.g. darting between parked cars)

All traffic controlled school and other speed zones to be identified with flashing lights. Prosecution not able to occur unless these are in operation.

All of the ridiculous ‘Speed Kills’ campaigns to be stopped immediately and where appropriate replaced with ‘Be aware, drive with care’ and campaigns that are aimed at reducing accidents and not just justifying the use of revenue collecting speed cameras and radars.

Set up a system of court appearances so that people do not have to take time out of work or shut down their businesses that costs people money and is an additional penalty. This could be achieved through the use of cameras and voice devices on any personal computer.

Ensure that when a person is deemed not guilty of any traffic offence they are paid costs that relate to their time including waiting for their case to be heard in court, transport costs and any preparation they have undertaken to attend at court and present their case.

Stop any cancellation of any person’s driver’s licence until they have been to court and found guilty as required by the Australian Constitution.

Remove red light cameras from intersections where it has been demonstrated they are contributing to the occurrence of rear end accidents.

Remove fixed speed cameras from roads where they have been placed simply to catch people driving at an appropriate speed, albeit one that has been artificially dropped to catch people out.

Stop Police setting up speed traps where there have not been identified accidents including at the bottom of down hill runs.

Scrap all the point to point cameras that force people to drive at mundane speeds on open roads that cause fatigue and complacency.

Monitor roads where people are consistently driving above the speed limit but without danger to evaluate whether the limit should be lifted to a more realistic speed.

Ensuring common sense with road work speed limits. For example if people are not working and there is no danger to motorists the speed reduction signs must be removed. If the road work is occurring off the road the common sense should prevail with no reduction of speed to assist traffic flow.

When people present in court for a ‘not guilty’ hearing for excessive speed near road works, they can challenge the validity and common sense of the speed restrictions. Also photographic evidence must be produced by Prosecution to show the layout of the reduced speed zone to fully justify the reduced speed limit. If there is any doubt then the motorist must be given the decision and costs awarded.

Increase speed limits where the road configuration permits such as the South Eastern Freeway, Northern Expressway and many other roads where there are multi-lanes and reasonable separation from on-coming traffic.

If used, and properly calibrated through the National Measurement Act, significantly increase the tolerances for any speed camera devices. Most speedometers are accurate to only +/- 10%. Therefore speed cameras should be set at least 15% over the speed zone to be fair to motorists.

Remove from legislation any illegal presumption of correctness of speed cameras or laser devices

Ensure that Police and courts must deliver photographic infringement notices no more than two weeks after the alleged commission of the offence to ensure people can accurately recall the situation or who was driving the car.

Ensure that red light camera photographs actually show the offence and not the vehicle fully in the intersection as is currently the case and is NOT an offence.

Remove anomalies like confusing reduction of speed that is unexplainable (e.g. 50km/hour on South Terrace and 40km/hour where once the limit was 60.) Naturally most responsible people will drive at a sensible 60 km/hour on South Terrace. Of course that is why there is usually a ‘camera / revenue’ car parked there – to catch sensible people driving at an appropriate speed. Also some justification is required where road speed zones have reduced from 80 km/hour to 60 km/hour for no justifiable reason – other than to assist revenue collection. This is especially galling when one considers the improvements in car and road design.

Make Government accountable for their decisions. We are currently being price gouged for a huge number of services that makes life more and more difficult for all South Australian. What is more of a concern is that South Australia is also the most expensive place to do business. With many small businesses going broke the Government will have less and less money because people will not have jobs. This in particularly the case for people who have to drive to make a living. Losing their licence for a string of petty offences can have a devastating effect on them and their families.